zumfab

I am not a big fan of MDF, except as a low grade material to experiment with or maybe make quick molds out of. Moisture resistance is terrible and it is a bit too easy to ding up, though both those issues should be somewhat mitigated by any surface coating. You do have a point though, I am mostly trying to strike a good balance between price and quality. I have looked into aircraft grade ply, but I know the aircraft business well enough to know that I would be paying for quality that is hardly used in a printer frame. Importantly, it also does not seem to line up with what Ultimaker uses. Still, it probably does pay to get some proper quality birch. I would also not necessarily be opposed to some other form of coated wood - as long as it's a bit more qualitative than MDF. The first thing that comes to mind is HPL, a nicely robust material and somewhat affordable. Ideally the frame material would be good enough to work and work properly, but cheap enough to replace if I ever need to for some reason. Ultimaker did not make a terrible choice to begin with when they opted for birch in the first place I looked at Dibond, since the UM2 is predominantly quieter because of it. Costs seem to be a bit excessive though, and I am not sure the final product would be that much better. Lastly, it just came to mind that both HPL and Dibond are possibly problematic to laser cut, at least locally.

How long does it realistically take to ship heated beds out on average?

That's really rather neat. The only downside is that it increases the size dramatically, but that happens with most enclosing solutions. It looks really snug and cosy in there and it does not look bad either. Quite on the contrary, I would say.

Cutting a door from ply or acrylic would probably have my preference when I would go that route, rather than printing the whole thing. Though you remind me of some worries I had about being able to reach all the nuts and bolts with closed sides. I remember having some issues with that even with open sides, which I solved by applying some Ulti yoga. It's hard to judge how much of an issue that would become with closed sides. Maybe something like removable panels might be a solution. Something to think about.

Where did everyone get his Full Graphic Smart Controller from (preferably full address links)? I have looked around quite a bit and have found controllers ranging from the very cheap (20 dollar or so) to the really not so cheap (up to around a 100 dollar), generally without any indication of build quality or other relevant properties. I am really not too sure what to look at and what to get, though taking a gamble with a cheaper unit might be the most prudent route.

For the past month or so I have been gearing up to cut my own Ultimaker frame. Drawings are found easily enough, but when I want to start executing the plans I have some questions and deliberations that I would like to run by people like you. I am hoping you can help me with those. I want to build a frame that is at least as good as a normal Ultimaker, but am also somewhat budget concious. If money needs to be spent I will spend it, but I would obviously rather not. Ultimaker frames are cut from 5 ply birch multiplex, for as far as I can tell. The predominant thickness seems to be 6 mm. Is this correct and are there any pieces that come in a different thickness or with different requirements? A: The material is birch and the frame comes in 4 and 6 mm thickness's. The drawings and which part is which can be found http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:54027/#files. In relation to my first question: is there anything I need to take into account when buying plywood? I will probably look for birch through and through, with as few obvious imperfections and knots as possible. Do I need to get a certain grade or quality? My experience with laser cutters tells me there is a bit of variance in how the dimensions of the pieces end up, depending on your exact laser settings, materials and other factors. What is the most size critical part I can use to calibrate this? Typically you would use the longest part for this, since that would make the deviation the smallest, but I guess that exact frame size is not the most size critical item in an Ultimaker. Am I right in thinking I need under a square meter, since the drawing dimensions are roughly 72 centimeter times 112 centimeter, making a total of just .81 m2 needed? I am thinking of altering a couple of things, among which closing up the sides in Ultimaker 2 style. This should not only aid structural and thermal stability, I also hope it helps keeping some of the dust out. I can see a couple of problems with head interference though. Are there any good reasons not to do this? Do you know of any other adaptations I might want to integrate? Now is my chance to get it all done. Are there other things that are useful to know when cutting a frame or pitfalls I really need to know about? I am pretty sure there is a wealth of information and experience amongst enthusiast Ultimaker tinkerers out there, so I hope to share some of that knowledge here

I couldn't help but notice that the carbon filled filament has a pretty disappointing performance. I understand it is supposed to be a little stiffer until it breaks at not a much different point from where normal PLA breaks, but I am not really sure that has been quantified.

Pretty cool. I was actually thinking of doing one, just to learn a little about how the forces in a compound bow work.

Is this post related to my earlier post? Youmagine invariably works here, so you might want to double check things on your side.

This is great, I was actually planning to open a thread like this about the actual technical and mechanical properties of prints. One of my main questions is how print direction influences strength and how that in turn differs from injection molded pieces. Did you test anything related to that? Printing little trinkets is nice, but when you really want to build things with printed parts you quickly find that useful information is pretty scarce.

This is very much a matter of time and development. Currently resins are expensive, not very strong and have other issues, but the search for cheaper, better and safer materials has clearly started a while ago. As more companies jump on the band wagon, better solutions will be found. Just look at all the FDM alternatives you see popping up now. The same will happen with SLA when enough momentum has been gained.

Very cool. If anything, they are excellent reference models to make your own. I mean, what better source than NASA itself. Printing via Shapeways should also not really be an issue.

It really does not matter that the print quality might be somewhat disappointing, the main message is that the ball is rolling in the affordable printers field. If you compare the prints that came out of the Darwin to what I printed now with FDM that is a world apart too. I really hope these guys can deliver something reasonably useful. Looks like they added a video of a working prototype, or at least a prototype doing some kind of work.

It sounds like you are trying to compensate one problem with another. If the bed is not even it would probably be best to figure out why that happens and correct that, rather than adding an x amount of leveling points until you get lucky, while complicating leveling with each addition.

I see FDM, in the long run, as a dead end street. As long as it is cheap and cheerful it will fill its niche, but as soon as SLA catches up machanically or financially it pretty much loses its right to exist. Some might argue that this will never happen or not for a long time, but FDM reminds me a little too much of a matrix printer. Fine and wonderful, until you get something that just does a better job.

Most plastics are rubbish for years on end outside without some special form of UV protection or other coatings, so I guess you are right there. If you want high quality and control over the end product, I would suggest you look at casting some (often polyurethane) gaskets. You can get a lot of different types and grades of that with probably more uniform and tweakable results when it comes to the material. If it is just a concept model then it might not be too relevant yet to have an actual durability of multiple years. Something like the flexible filaments will do in that case - it would be interesting to see how long it actually takes them to fail.

Take a look at the flexible materials thread, a lot of those can be used for gaskets. Why would normal 3D printing not be waterproof? A print with good fill and 3-4 lines of thickness should be able to contain or block water pretty good, even less when everything is tuned right.

Try a brim instead of raft. This will greatly increase adhesion while having a limited detrimental effect in the looks department.

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Nice one! That saves me a little trouble there and is a lot more subtle than what I was considering. You don't happen to know a good mounting for a Full Graphic Smart Controller, do you? That was the other item I wanted to tackle. Maybe that is better reserved for another topic.

I am rather partial to the somewhat industrial look without the wooden piece, that is why I ask. Tripping the Z switch at the right time is something to take into account, I missed that. I need to ponder the options there.

Does the wooden back piece have a function? Other than showing off the name brand, of course

Great news. You might want to change the statement on the website that lists 1.5.7 as a requirement, people will get all confused and sad

What about banding? I understand the new platform should help with that. The old bed can be leveled fine indeed, it just takes a decent amount of time. Any reduction in the time it take to level, like this upgrade promises, is welcome if your hours are on the clock The TCO might actually be lower due to these kinds of things, despite the cost of the upgrade, depending on circumstances.

Thanks for your answer. The glass was already sorted, but easier leveling is welcome. A heated bed was planned, so I am having to justify the extra cost over a home built solution. A printer really is a tool to me, not just a hobby, and unfortunately that means that not every upgrade is viable. I need to make smart decisions with my money. Do you have any comparison prints to drive the difference home? Improved bed leveling is something that should save a bunch of time (and therefore money), but being a visually oriented creature I would love to see some easy before and after pics Those guides that were posted earlier do clarify a lot too, those are useful, although the focus on detail (obviously) means I am not sure how the two panels are looped together when all is said and done.